Quite interesting? You've got to be kidding, Kat. I'm familiar with Mark Flanagan's work; he bores me to tears and he gets things wrong all the time. Means well, I think, but has a tendency to go off half-cocked and not go the extra mile (or even a yard or two) in checking his facts. Somebody ought to do the world a favor, offer him an early retirement incentive and get him out of the newspaper business. Some of the questionable parts in his piece on Thomas are whether the cart he used was drawn by a pony -- or a mule, as others have reported -- and whether Niles' first dulcimer was Thomas-built. I think he also tends to mislead -- or at least not give credit where it's due -- on the various namings of the Kentucky, mountain and lap dulcimer. If he had re-read Jean Ritchie's preface to L. Allen Smith's "Catalogue of Pre-Revival Dulcimers," he might have phrased things differently. Sorry for the rant, and thanks for your help. -- Pinetop Slim (aka Mark Flanagan)